Fast Facts: The Oldest and Youngest Photographs

With the Photography at Auction Digest volume 1 now available to buy and download, there are lots of interesting nuggets of information to be discovered about 2018’s year in photographic sales such as the oldest photograph in the data, and the ‘youngest’:

Most recent image to be captured and sell at auction in 2018 was David Yarrow’s 78 degrees north, Svalbard, Norway  which was created in 2017. The photograph, sold at Sotheby’s London Photographs sale, shows the black paw of a brilliant white Polar bear contrasted with the all-white arctic scene. Flush-mounted to aluminium this print was edition 1 of a sold out collection of 12 and sold for £81,250 – far above the original estimate of £18,000-£25,000.

Compared with Yarrow’s print, Joseph Philibert Girault de Pragney’s Portrait D’une June Femme, Fleur a la Main, Vers was taken in 1842 – almost 2 centuries earlier. The photograph is a portrait of a young girl holding a poesy of flowers in the artist’s studio. The quarter-plate daguerreotype contrasts significantly with Yarrow’s Polar bear photo – an all white scene, compared to Girault de Pragney’s dark and moody portrait. The image sold for 35,000 Euros at Sotheby’s Paris Photographies sale, with an original estimate of 8,000-12,000.

Find out more about the year’s photography auctions, the most expensive photographs sold, trends and insights, essays and industry news along with the definitive top 50 most expensive photographs to sell at auction in the Photography at Auction Digest, volume 1 available on amazon in print or as download.